He's headed in the right direction though. To demonstrate the rap/champagne consumption correlation and,by extension, the potential impact of Cristal boycott, he could site this study from December:
New York-based Scarborough Research found that people who have attended a hip-hop concert are 77 percent more likely than the general public to buy Champagne. And a recent study by New Media Strategies, a research company in Washington, D.C., showed that 60 percent of consumers who consider themselves hip-hop fans are likely to buy products mentioned by rappers.

Urbonics, the problem is he stopped way too soon and pretended to be done.

Champagne does not equal Cristal. You have to look at the actual figures, the costs of the products, etc. to make comparisons.

You can't assume that a boycott of a really expensive product is going to have the same impact as the boycott of a product that ranges widely in price. That's a place to start, not to stop.

For all I know, a Cristal boycott might be even more effective, but no one's presented evidence in any media account on this topic that I've seen that can allow you to draw conclusions either way.

Obviously I'm proposing that a Cristal boycott would be ineffective and have discussed that quite thoroughly at ProHipHop but I've made it clear that that's what I think and that much of it is speculation.

People are making easy assumptions that fit what they want to believe rather than staying within the limits of their evidence. It's fine if you say it's what you think but can't prove but once you start claiming you've got proof of something you don't, you're headed in the wrong direction.

People that make that equation have never been to the 40/40 club and seen how people kill a week's paycheck on Cristal. I've been there (and was obviously the shortest person in the club). I've seen it. It's part of the culture.

If I wanted to do a thorough, number laden spreadsheet and research presentation about how a hip hop wide boycott of Cristal would potentially affect the bottom line, I would. But that was not my intention.

This is not a f*cking economics research blog. It's a hip hop blog and my intention was to express my opinion that Jay-Z's boycott of Cristal was a purely economic move that has a very real chance (as in potential) to disrupt Cristal sales. I apologize to those who feel like that opinion has to be substantiated and verified by a 3rd party research firm and quarterly financial statements. Really.

Good frickin Lord I feel like I'm in a freshman college classroom listening to sheltered suburban 18 year olds fight over inner city economic policy.

>>Obviously I'm proposing that a Cristal boycott would be ineffective and have discussed that quite thoroughly at ProHipHop but I've made it clear that that's what I think and that much of it is speculation.

My research hit a brick wall when it came time to examine what percentage of those sales were of Cristal, and what percentage of US Cristal sales were by the urban market. The unavailability of key data like that makes speculation on the impact of Jays boycott difficult at best, useless at worst.

It doesn't really matter what the numbers are. The move is still significant even if we can't pinpoint the numbers. Jay-Z has been supporting the product for ten years, he's one of the most recognized celebrities in the world and his moves make waves across all race and class strata.

I'd argue it's not significant enough to spend a whole week and ten posts on before dismissing it Clyde but it's still significant for the reasons Michael mentions.

The counter-argument to don't kill the messenger is the media is the message....

Or as Sacha Orenstein just blogged at Oh Word:

"TV (rap news) used to be around solely to sell the product of live shows (rap records), but over time itâs proven so effective thatâs itâs become the product itself. After all, who in their right mind would ever buy a Tony Yayo record, or even listen to the bootleg twice? Yet judging from news stand sales, a fair amount of people would be interested in a tell-all Yayo interview about the Busta Rhymes bodyguard shooting. Controversy sells. In fact, it sells so much that itâs only worth producing actual content for illusionâs sake. There needs to be some sort of a viable reason for people to be interested in rappers shooting at each other, it might as well be because they make music."

E-40 is way dope, but I think Keak Da Sneak is the Hottest out the bay! Most origional style, slang, attitude and he stays underground. Keak Da Sneak has dropped like 10+ albums all independent all dope! Mac Dre is also wayyyy dope too though! Largly responsible for the "hyphy movements" roots, over 20 albums and countless slaps, slang, and entertainment! Plus he made the best movie of all time... Treal TV!

i popped into the bay area this weekend and lost my mind when i heard this sh@#. i work at the BIG station power 94.9 in bermuda and i have got to have this on the air like yesterday. who is it? what label? where do i go?
zina